National Spatial Data Infrastructure - GIS Portal in Brazil

Report: The design of a new highway, the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, the installation of an industrial complex. Decisions on resource planning and management, as well as the elaboration of public and private policies, will be facilitated with the introduction of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE), to which users will have access by means of an internet portal, the SIG Brasil. Initially, the portal will integrate geospatial data of federal institutions of the Brazilian government and will permit information visualization and access, making it possible to mix geospatial information in the internet environment. During the next decade, other national organizations – at state and municipal level, for example – will be able to join INDE. The signing of INDE launch minutes will mark the portal inauguration, and will take place on April 8, at the auditorium of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management, in Brasília, with the presence of minister Paulo Bernardo Silva; the president of CONCAR and secretary of Strategic Planning and Investments Afonso Oliveira de Almeida; the substitute president of CONCAR and president of IBGE Eduardo Pereira Nunes; the executive secretary of CONCAR and director of Geosciences of IBGE Luiz Paulo Fortes, besides representatives of other entities.

The portal SIG Brasil is a practical result of the introduction of INDE, an initiative of the Federal Government aimed at cataloging, integrating and harmonizing geospatial data produced or kept by institutions of the Brazilian government, so that they are easily located, handled in their characteristics and accessed for the more diverse uses, by any client with internet access. INDE foresees the establishment of norms and standards for data production, storage, share and dissemination. Also, the celebration of interinstitutional agreements of data share, besides qualification and training for producers and users of such information.

Instituted by Decree no. 6.666, on November 27, 2008, INDE is being implanted under the coordination of the National Commission of Cartography (CONCAR), a collegiate organ of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management, counting on the participation of several ministries, federal and state institutions, and enterprise associations involved in geospatial information production and use. It is up to IBGE, as the entity responsible for technical and administrative support to CONCAR, to construct, make available and operate INDE access portal, the SIG Brasil.

INDE aims at arranging the generation, storage, access, share, dissemination and use of geospatial data of federal, state, district and municipal origin; promoting the utilization, in geospatial data production, of standards and norms ratified by CONCAR; and avoiding double actions and resource wasting in the attempt to obtain geospatial data by public administration organs, through the publishing of metadata related to these available data at public entities and organs.

INDE implantation plan has the duration of 10 years and three cycles: the first began in August of last year, and its conclusion is expected for the end of this year; Cycle II will take place from 2011 to 2014; and Cycle III, from 2015 to 2020. At the end of Cycle I, portal SIG Brasil is expected to count on a minimum infrastructure of hardware, software and telecommunications, with engines of geospatial data and metadata search, handling and access. The portal will be fed and updated with geospatial information from diverse organs.

Geospatial information are, for instance, cartographic and topographic data that represent territory, satellite images, orthophotographs, the network that represents transport infrastructure, the location and descriptions that represent protected areas, the description and representation of urban and rural properties, as well as the distinct uses of soil. Also considered geospatial information is that of statistical nature describing demographic aspects, as well as the population distribution or socioeconomic variables. INDE information is classified in three groups: Reference Data – related to Geodetics, topographic and registry charts; Thematic Data, related to vegetation, soils, geology, land coverage and use and other themes, defined especially by the physical environmental characteristics and by the action of economic sectors; and Value Added Data. This group originates from the previous two, added by users or producers (public or private) to the Reference Data, due to a certain interest and specific utilization, and may have a wide diversity of thematic detailing and geographic coverage.

Access the portal here.